Martin and Kathleen Holmes presumably have never assumed that their youngest daughter, Kate Noelle Holmes, would become a well-known American actress when this couple welcomed her birth on December 18, 1978 in Toledo, Ohio. It is because they, along with their four other children, have been infatuated with sports which apparently did not affect little Katie to grow the same interest. On the contrary, she developed a fondness in acting by getting involved in the high school theater during her study at Notre Dame Academy of Toledo. Nevertheless, she did not put her hopes highly to become a professional actress due to her origin of being a Midwesterner, as she once had written: "Hollywood and its numerous success stories seemed extremely far away and definitely from a world that I would never come into contact with."

In 1995, Katie's course of life experienced a great turn when she joined a modeling competition held by International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA), attending its annual "Hooray for Hollywood" Convention in New York City. Al Onorato, a talent manager, quickly spotted her potentiality, thus invited her to come to Los Angeles where she auditioned successfully to earn a small role in Ang Lee's ...